How Do You Know if Your Sales Strategy is Broken? By Frank Hurtte Many distributors struggle when asked to explain their sales strategy. With  a great deal of hand waving and stuttering , the conversation quickly turns vague and squishy. Sales leaders talk about relationships, service, responsiveness, and “taking care of the customer.” All important, of course. No customer enjoys working with an unresponsive supplier or a company that creates problems instead of solving them. But those statements rarely explain why customers actually buy. Listen closely, and you’ll hear familiar catchphrases: “Our strength is our relationships.” “Our people care more than the other guys.” “We give great service.” (What does that even mean?) “We go above and beyond supplier expectations.” True? Possibly. Strategic? Not even close.  You can bet your bottom dollar that every competitor can make the same claim There’s a simpler way to test the strength of a sales strategy. Instea...

Your Greatest Competitive Advantage Is Your People. Are You Investing Accordingly? In distribution, people are not just an expense line. They are the business. Depending on your trade, employee costs often account for 60–70% of operating spend . When acquisitions happen, buyers rarely start with the building or the trucks. They start with one question: Will your people stay, and can they perform? Without the team, a distributor is an empty warehouse, aging equipment, and a customer list worth less than a well-run operation. Yet many distributors still treat workforce investment as secondary to equipment, software, or expansion. That’s a mistake, especially in today’s market.   Growth Mode Requires Talent Strategy Economists continue to point toward growth phases across many distribution sectors. Growth periods are the ideal time to strengthen capability, not just infrastructure. But too often, “investing in the business” translates into buying things. T...

Tacos, Tinsel, and the New Sales Guy A Conversation with Santa Claus Every December, I carve out a little quiet time to talk with my North Pole pal, Santa Claus. Please note this is not the cheap department-store imposter, but the honest-to-goodness Jolly One. Despite his age and high-cholesterol diet, Santa remembers names, recognizes patterns, and isn’t afraid to point out bad habits. He knows exactly who’s been working and who just looks busy. This year, we agreed to meet somewhere neutral: No workshop No sleigh No pesky elves Just tacos So there we were at my favorite spot, Rudy’s Tacos, just a block from my East Davenport office. We slid into a booth after long days, me locking up River Heights Consulting , Santa still smelling faintly of peppermint, plastic pine needles, and retail exhaustion. “Hard day?” I asked. Santa nodded. “You wouldn’t believe how many people ask for things they aren’t ready to take care of.” I smiled. “That sounds familiar.” Santa took a bite of his ...

  Surviving the Sales Zombie Apocalypse: Is Your Team Brain Dead? By Frank Hurtte, River Heights Consulting In honor of Halloween and all things creepy and unsettling, let’s talk about a truly frightening business epidemic: Sales Zombies . You’ve seen them lurching around in the wild: salespeople moving through the motions, cold-calling without purpose, and chasing the same tired deals. Driven by habit instead of strategy, they slowly drain profits, eat away at customer loyalty, and leave a trail of missed opportunities. Here are four telltale signs your sales team might be showing symptoms of zombification, and how to bring them back to life. 1. Sales Zombies Don’t Understand Their Customers The best salespeople know how their customers make money, manage costs, and stay competitive. The undead ones? They don’t. Without understanding key business drivers like labor costs, inventory control, and waste, they can’t offer meaningful solutions or position themselves as tr...

Turning Cost into Cash: A Podcast with Frank Hurtte Hire Slow, Fire Fast might sound harsh, but Frank Hurtte isn’t pulling punches when it comes to sales success. In this latest IEDA podcast episode, Frank dives into why your dealership’s sales team should be more than just “expense-report addicts in logo shirts” and how strong leadership, coaching, and accountability can turn new hires into revenue drivers. Whether you’re behind the wheel, on a jog, or grabbing a coffee, this is the kind of straight-talk sales wisdom you don’t want to miss. Listen on the Independent Equipment Dealers Association Group page OR...  Want to listen during your drive time? Click for Spotify and Apple Podcasts . About the Author Frank Hurtte has nearly 50 years of industrial sales experience and is the founder of River Heights Consulting. He’s the author of The New Sales Guy Project and several other books, a sought-after speaker, and a regular magazine columnist. Frank is known for telling ...

Leave Them Alone and Let Them Sell? Are You Out of Your Mind? An angry man's rant By Frank Hurtte Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve masochistically subjected myself (voluntarily, mind you) to a greasy, day-old buffet of podcasts, think-pieces, and smug online lectures from sales "experts" who believe the solution to all of life’s problems is to just leave salespeople alone. “Let them do what feels best,” they coo, or maybe spew, like back-alley dope pushers. If it feels good, do it. “No need to manage them. Don’t you dare ask what they’re doing. And for the love of God, don’t mention CRM.” It’s an exhaustingly long-winded sermon of anti-accountability. And like the Jonestown cult, the Kool-Aid line is long. Looking back, I wish I’d made a list of those slobbering all over themselves in the amen corner of the comment section. Note to self: deprogram them before even reading their resume, much less hiring them. Rather than yelling at my screen or punching drywa...

We know most New Year’s Resolutions lapse, collapse, and gather dust.  They would fail my grandmother’s white glove test for thoroughness. What if you could be different? Part of the failure behind most resolutions is that they lack a plan to hold yourself or your team accountable. Meeting goals, such as increasing sales, requires consistent monitoring. You need to watch both leading and lagging indicators and correct the course as needed. If you don’t consistently monitor your progress, a lag or lapse becomes the new normal like the dust bunnies behind the couch. So, what is an aspiring sales manager to do? True confession: I am NOT a fan of the old saw “Beatings will continue until morale improves.” You cannot achieve long-term results or employee longevity with that approach. However, a completely hands-off method will also guarantee that you miss your goals. People need to know you are cheering for them, removing obstacles, adding needed support, and, most importantly, inspect...